As noted on our FAQ about who pays for treatment, the New Jersey Warranty of Habitability says landlords have to keep rental apartments pest-free.

However, things can be a bit more complicated than that.

Although the law says NJ landlords have to pay to eliminate bed bugs from rental units, they don’t say landlords can’t then turn around and charge tenants to cover the costs.

This Journal article details an example of this in action: seniors living in low-income housing, the 240-unit Grandview Terrace in Jersey City, are suffering badly from bed bugs, and have been for three years. Fifty units are now known to have them:

The state holds landlords responsible for extermination in “multi-unit” buildings of three or more apartments - if the bugs are found in two or more units or in common areas. But the state doesn’t take a stance as to whether landlord can then turn around and charge the tenants, said Jennifer Monaghan of the state Department of Community Affairs.

One-and two-family buildings are regulated by a different set of laws that can be superseded by municipal law, but in general the rules are the same: the owner is responsible, but has the right to include a provision in the lease charging the costs back to the tenants.

But despite the law most Jersey City landlords are shouldering the costs, said Charles Odei, director for Jersey City’s Division of Tenant Landlord Relations. “With all the other cases (but Grandview Terrace) we’ve been successful in getting the landlord to pay so far,” he said.

The 284-unit Grandview Terrace has had nearly 50 cases of bedbugs in the past three years, said Steve Lesko, president of Norman Ostrow Inc., which manages the building. He said the building’s tenant board voted in 2006 to charge tenants individually.

“Why should people who don’t have a problem pay for people who do?” he said, adding that the policy tends to prevent false alarms.

That kind of policy, decided by a tenant board or not, just shows an ignorance of bed bugs and how they work. They probably made this decision ignorant of the fact that a large percentage of people do not react to bed bug bites, and so have to have a pretty serious infestation before they notice it. They must also have been ignorant about just how easily bed bugs travel within a building.

And clearly, Grandview Terrace’s management is ignorant about how bed bugs travel:

Lesko said most infestations at Grandview come from tenants bringing the bugs into the building through used furniture or their clothes, not from the bugs moving from one apartment to another.

But tenants disagree, saying they’ve seen the bugs in common areas, and that the critters can easily jump from one tenant to another in elevators.

And charging tenants individually has the down side that many won’t report the problem, causing the infestation to continue to spread.

“Everyone that lives in Grandview Terrace is on a fixed income,” said Robert High, who has tried to deal with the bugs on his own. “We can’t afford it.”

Bed bugs don’t jump, but they do walk, and run.

I am not sure how the building management determined that those 50 cases were mostly caused by bed bugs being brought in from outside.

(Perhaps Lesko has little tracking devices planted on them?)

But I do know this: forcing elderly people on limited incomes to pay for their own bed bug treatment is a good way to ensure the entire building is eventually infested. And that’s not good for owners or tenants.

New Jersey needs to update its housing laws. If tenants are going to be forced to pay for bed bug treatment, then there must be a provision of financial assistance to help them do so. And of course, if landlords are suffering hardship, the government can certainly pass laws to help them pay for treatment too. But skipping or skimping on bed bug treatment is not a good idea.

People need to be encouraged to report bed bug problems, and they need immediate treatment, regardless of ability to pay. It’s in everyone’s best interest that everyone gets good, swift treatment for bed bugs.

Update:

This article, also from the Journal, reports on how seniors in a Bayonne Housing Authority building, Back Bay Gardens, at 535 Avenue A, are suffering with bed bugs, despite treatment.

One tenant there had 10-12 PCO treatments, and has now been free of bed bug bites for three weeks (much too soon to declare victory).

The problem there seems to be that tenants are only treated if they complain about bed bugs — there do not seem to be any routine inspections going on. And when they are treated, the article implies there is a one-month gap between treatments and follow-ups only occur if tenants ask for them:

[John Mahon of the Bayonne Housing Authority] said the Housing Authority provides an extermination service once a month and sends the exterminator when a tenant calls with a problem.

A tenant who had treatment several weeks ago reports continuing to see bed bugs. Why aren’t all the units in this building being inspected, and why aren’t treatments recurring at approximately 2-week intervals, which most PCOs who know bed bugs seem to recommend? Almost no one gets rid of bed bugs after one treatment, since traditional treatments do not kill bed bug eggs, which hatch in approximately 10 days.

This article is disturbing, and a good reminder that simply providing bed bug treatment to residents is not enough; buildings and housing authorities need good bed bug treatment protocols; they need to provide aggressive treatment with follow-ups, and to inspect units adjoining those with infestations even when tenants have not yet detected a bed bug problem.

More on bed bugs in Grandview Terrace, and on the spread of bed bugs in Hoboken, Atlantic City, and the rest of the Garden State here.

• New York City: Who’s responsible for paying for bed bug treatment? Complicated, in some cases.
• landlords talking about bed bugs
• Bedbugs called “a new kind of roach”; building managment lies
• landlord’s duty to tell prospective tenants about bed bugs?

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The Charlotte-area United Family Services domestic violence shelter has evacuated its residents to “a safe place” in order to battle a recent infestation of bedbugs, said Libby McLaughlin, vice president of development and communication. The staff anticipates reopening the shelter in two to three weeks.

But the move has added to the difficulties the women face, which include other time constraints. Shelter rules dictate that, upon arrival, residents have 30 days to find a job and another place to stay.

The bites and rashes from the bedbugs have made it hard for some women to find a job. And the medicine given to fight the itching, such as steroids or Benadryl, has triggered the addictions of some women with substance abuse problems.

“People are saying to go back home,” said one anonymous shelter resident. “I don’t have that option, because I’m not going back home.”

One would hope that the normal rules of the shelter would be adapted during such a crisis.

While removed from much more dangerous situations in their homes, these women have still been suffering from a lesser kind of “domestic crisis.” It’s a lot to expect for women who may be losing a lot of sleep and suffering from stress, visible bed bug bites, and itching (which can be quite uncomfortable) to find new jobs and a new home within thirty days.

We’ve previously reported on another Charlotte shelter, the Salvation Army women’s shelter, which houses homeless women, and which has been battling bed bugs off and on for nearly a year. The Salvation Army has apparently spent $50,000 in the last few weeks on renovations aimed at eliminating their bed bug problems.

Meanwhile, the United Family Services shelter has invested in new flooring, mattresses and bedding. It has also purchased a new dryer and new metal frame beds. (It is not mentioned in the article, but I hope they are getting good, aggressive pest control treatment as well.)

Local public health officials stress bed bugs are not a health problem,

“This is not a public health pest,” said Lynn Lathan, environmental health supervisor for the Mecklenburg County Health Department. “They’re annoying, but not transmitting disease.”

However, I personally think that a condition which can cause serious skin irritation, visible welts all over your face and body, other allergic reactions, anxiety and loss of sleep is a health concern.

Nevertheless, the women at United Family Services have worse threats to worry about:

For women in the United Family Services shelter, there’s a choice: Face the bugs in the shelter, or face abuse at home.

“I have a choice of going back to my husband and getting punched in the eye or getting eaten by bugs,” said one anonymous shelter resident.

We can only hope things are better for these women soon.

• Bed bug news round-up: South Jersey apartment complex; Charlotte, North Carolina Salvation Army shelter
• Charlotte, NC Salvation Army Women’s Shelter has bed bugs again
• bed bug news for 2007-11-13
• Bed bugs usually plague a city for a few weeks before being eradicated. Really, Waterbury Health Department?

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The Los Angeles Times reports that Gloria and Robert Chisley claim they were bitten by bed bugs in the Barona Resort and Casino, in Lakeside, California (August 2005).

The case is interesting, first of all, because it concerns alleged events in a tribal resort/casino and so is being tried under the Barona tribe’s judicial system.

It’s also interesting because the resort and casino is claiming that the plaintiff had scabies, not bed bugs:

The tribe disputes Gloria Chisley’s contention that she was attacked by bedbugs at its hotel, suggesting instead that her marks were the result of scabies, a condition that would have taken weeks to develop before Chisley showed the marks to hotel employees.

Doctors who have examined Chisley are split on the cause of her marks — one saying bedbugs and two scabies.

Since many of us (especially a few years back, before bed bugs were as well known) were wrongly told by our doctors that we had scabies, I found this interesting.

I gather this is a less frequent occurrence today, as doctors are becoming more aware of the problem of bed bugs.

Incidentally, scabies can be tested for with skin scrapings. Apparently biopsies can also be done, in many cases, to verify a “bite” is from an insect. Neither test, from what I gather, is foolproof.

Scabies, untreated, will not go away. Bed bug bites, in the absence of bed bugs, will.

If the plaintiff was convinced by any of these doctors to undergo treatment for scabies, and at the same time, the couple were removed from the presence of bed bugs, when the condition cleared, it might be very hard to prove whether the scabies mite or bed bugs were the culprits.

And it isn’t clear from this LA Times article whether the couple saw bed bugs, or obtained bed bug samples.

• FAQ: Where can I read about bed bug lawsuits? Can you help me find a lawyer?
• Bed bugs at the College of New Jersey
• teaching doctors to diagnose bed bug bites
• Harvard dorm treated for scabies–but what was it really? Also, bed bugs at Columbia?

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Hi,

I have a number of questions for you. Brief background is this, on my way back from Australia to Canada in Feb 2008, I stopped in Bangkok for two nights. Around 5 pm both days, I noticed a massive amount of bites on my arms and upper legs. I assumed they were mosquito bites, but when I got back to Canada in February, the bites continued (but I was getting fewer: between 2-4 day). I went to a doctor who told me she was sure that I had bed bugs. I went back to the friends house, tore everything apart and found what I thought were two bed bugs. I contacted a PCO, who looked at the samples, and agreed. He did two treatments, and I still was getting bites. The friend who I was staying with has not received any bites and the person who has moved into my room has not had any problems (about 2 months ago).

Before moving to my sister’s place, I took all precautions - washing and drying all clothing, coats, shoes, handbags and placing them in large ziplock bags. My luggage was vacuumed and anything I wasn’t sure how to clean (electronic picture frames, books) has been sealed and stored. I am still getting bites, and am at a complete loss as to how I could be bringing them with me. I also have had to stay out of town a few times, each time I follow the above procedure, and still get bites no matter where I go. No one else has had them, even people who have slept right next to my luggage for more than a week. For almost all my bites, they do not show up until late afternoon, evening. As far as I can recall I have never woken up with new bites, they don’t appear until later. Since finding the initial bugs, I have not been able to find any bugs, eggs or casts.

It is quite common for bites received during the night to appear in late afternoon (or at any other time during the day). Many people notice them first after showering (there’s a theory that the heat “brings them out”). Not finding bed bugs, eggs, or cast skins is not unusual, but I would expect signs of some kind, especially after four months. Have there been any fecal stains?

So my questions are:

Is there anything you can think of that I might be doing to transmit the bugs with me?

Sure: what about that luggage? You vacuumed it, but they could still be in there. Is it still around?

Do you have a workplace you could have infested? A car? Any other locations they may have spread?

I am not sure where you are in Canada, but it’s worth noting that this is a widespread problem, all over your country. It is not unthinkable that someone there might have bed bugs and you’re being exposed to them without even having brought them in.

I have a laptop which has never been in any of my bedrooms - when I move I vacuum the case but how do I clean the actually laptop?

This is not an easy question to answer. Others may have recommendations, but it is hard to do anything without potentially damaging the electronic item.

You need a Pest Control Operator who knows bed bugs to will treat your home (or wherever you’re laying your hat) thoroughly, not just twice, but until bed bugs and bed bug bites are long gone. The FAQS on Pest Control will be of some help. One describes how intrepid Bedbuggers have found samples of bed bugs. Another suggests questions to ask a potential PCO.

Get the PCO to advise you on the laptop. Bed bugs will not live in there indefinitely. If they are in the laptop, they will come out to bite you. Having the PCO make sure there’s a pesticide between you and the laptop might be a good bet. (That way, they come out to feed, cross poison, and die.) I advise against self-treatment both for issues of safety and effectiveness.

But remember that electronics are not always infested. And my money’s on your luggage.

Is it possible for previous bites to keep coming back? My bites always seem to be located in the same spots, and are almost always under my clothing.

Are they in the same spots, or are they the same bites?

Some people believe bites can sometimes kind of hang around and keep flaring up. I have never heard anyone claiming this was happening in the same spots for four months.

I think it is more likely that you are being bitten and that they favor certain areas of your body. (Under clothing? Sure. The idea they don’t go there is a myth.)

Are you aware of anything else that could be causing these? My friends think that I am paranoid but my bites are quite specific and do not look at all like a stress rash.

Sorry for the long email, I appreciate any help you can give me.

Sorry for your trouble, Krystelle.

Actually, lots of things can cause similar problems. Scabies should be ruled out (though it is unlikely in your case–I would expect it to get worse and worse over four months, and spread around the body). Folliculitis has been the cause of at least one Bedbugger’s scare. See a doctor to rule it out.

Try not to itch. If a bite reaction is “coming back” then leaving it alone to heal might help. Again, I don’t think this is the case.

Doctors can’t diagnose bed bug bites definitively. However, I understand that they can verify in some cases whether an insect caused an apparent bite. You might follow up on that.

Good luck– please do not give up. If your PCO was treating a known infestation, s/he should not have stopped after two visits if the bed bugs and bed bug bites had not abated fully. We hear the average treatment takes 3 or more visits spaced two weeks apart.

Finally, readers, I am answering Krystelle’s letter here and not via email precisely so that you can weigh in with your wisdom. That’s your cue! What do you have to say to Krystelle?

• teaching doctors to diagnose bed bug bites
• FAQ: Are bedbugs a health issue?
• The Daily News on bed bug dogs; a Bedbugger idea for avoiding bed bugs while traveling
• Barona Resort and Casino bed bug lawsuit

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According to the state’s order, health department inspectors found violations of law “which constitute an imminent danger to the health, safety and welfare of the facility’s residents.”

The order says the building’s flat roof needs replacement, and that leaks have caused “severe structural degradation” and that the ceilings of six rooms have partially collapsed, plaster walls are peeling or bubbling, adjoining rooms and halls have water damage and steel ceiling support struts are rusting.

The order says “a foul smell of mold permeates the air. Water stains, mold and a generally moist environment are present,” and protection against the elements is “substantially compromised.”

As you likely suspect by its mention here, yes, the conditions included a bad infestation of bed bugs:

On May 2, inspectors found live and dead bedbugs and bedbug eggs in 40 beds. Inspectors saw several residents with bedbug bites, who reported complaining to the adult home’s staff for months about the problem. No corrective action has taken place, the DOH said.

The Health Department order suspends Monticello Manor’s operating license, and the state is preparing an order to permanently revoke the license and impose civil penalties on the operator, Charles Benson.

All seventy residents are being relocated. Forty beds contained “bed bugs and bed bug eggs”.

As in the case of Evie Kelly, complaints about bed bugs were made and not acted on for some time (in the case of Monticello Manor, this went on for “months”).

And only “several residents” complained about bed bug bites.

Managers of adult residences (such as this one), dorms, senior housing, and other facilities need to be more proactive about bed bugs. It is not sufficient to wait until large numbers of people come to complain.

This story reminds us that they won’t.

A few people will come, and they will often represent huge numbers of people who may not be aware what is causing their problem, or may not be aware they have one, or who may fear repercussions for complaining about bed bugs.

The complaints of those who do step forward must be taken seriously. Bed bugs should be searched for aggressively, whenever someone comes forward to complain. Because in so many of these cases, those complaints represent a fraction of the people affected by bed bugs.

More on Monticello Manor’s closing here.

• Bed bug news round-up: Waterbury, Connecticut; MIT
• A tale of another city: Monticello, NY low-income tenants 1, slumlord 0
• Rockford, IL: half of Red Roof Inn shut down due to bed bugs
• Bed bugs in hotels: how to report (and check up on) bed bug infestations

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She has bed bugs in her apartment in a building for senior citizens:

“It’s hard. I hate it,” a resigned and visibly worn-out Kelly said last week while she sat in her public senior citizen high-rise apartment on Ravoux Street. She is forced to sit and sometimes sleep on a lawn chair in her living room because the little buggers have taken over the bed, couch and recliner.

It would not be so bad, however, if her building management were more proactive about getting her help:

Adding salt to the bites Kelly has endured, her efforts as well as those of relatives and others the past two weeks to get someone to address the bedbug infestation have mostly fallen on deaf ears.

“The (building site manager) came up here, looked around, found nothing and told my aunt that if there were bedbugs here, he would eat his shirt,” said Louise Sebesta.

Actually, he will need to do that. The article’s author, Rubén Rosario, suggested Sebesta, Kelly’s niece, take some samples to be identified by bed bug researcher Stephen Kells, at the University of Minnesota, and she did.

Kells confirmed they were bed bugs. And he said,

“We are seeing more problems with people in assisted-living facilities and low-income areas, and it’s not because they are dirty, and it’s not because they are unclean,” Kells told us. “Bedbugs will feed on me. They will feed on anyone in this lab. The problem is that people who are in assisted living do not have the resources to adequately control them once they do get them. Money is a big reason.”

Kells explained that it could take $500 to upward of $3,000 to effectively treat one apartment and $50,000 to $80,000 to treat a whole building, as has been done in major urban areas.

Even though Kelly and Sebesta had found bed bugs, and a bed bug expert had identified them, it took weeks of phone calls from Sebesta as well as Kelly’s public health nurse, to get the problem addressed. Rosario writes:

Sebesta called public housing officials and a slew of city, state and federal agencies in the past two weeks to relay her aunt’s plight. She had received no return calls when I spoke with her last week.

Jeanette Buckley, Kelly’s county public health nurse, confirmed she has also called similar numbers since May 14 with similar nonresults.

She finally got a return call Tuesday from Cheryl Hawley, who works as a human services coordinator for the St. Paul Public Housing Agency. The federally funded organization owns and operates 16 senior public high-rises in the city.

According to Buckley, Hawley mentioned that the site manager had already gone to Kelly’s place and found nothing. She suggested that the manager might be sent back for another look.

To make the long story short, Kelly’s apartment has now been inspected (again): bed bugs were confirmed and the unit is receiving treatment.

But I can see some problems that this scenario highlights.

First, many people with bed bugs do not react to bed bug bites. Others will react but not see bed bugs. Fewer will react to bed bug bites, see bed bugs, and report them.

Those who do need careful and thorough responses, to be sure. And we can hope St. Paul Public Housing Agency officials will be reviewing their procedures to make sure things run more smoothly for the next Evie Kelly who reports bed bugs.

However, given the difficulties of recognizing the problem and of detecting bed bugs, I hope that city agencies will become more proactive — especially when it comes to housing for senior citizens.

Although bed bug dogs are not foolproof, they could be a very useful tool in helping detect bed bug infestations in apartment buildings before they get out of hand.

And seniors in buildings like Kelly’s need to be educated about the resurgence of bed bugs and the signs of bed bugs.

They need to know that they may not feel any bed bug bites or see any bed bugs (and their building managers need to know this too!)

Finally, they need to be reminded that bed bugs spread easily and don’t have anything to do with cleanliness, and that they should not be afraid to come forward when they suspect a problem.

• Sleep deprived woman with bed bugs trips and falls in front of subway
• Cincinnati: awareness spreading, funds needed to fight bed bugs
• Reg Ayre of Toronto Public Health: bed bugs a “health concern,” not a “health hazard”
• bed bug news for 2007-11-11: Lexington, KY and Toronto, ON

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Now Jane Clark is suing the building management of 1211 Avenue of the Americas, where Fox and the Post are housed, as well as two building maintenance companies, over the bites she incurred, says CBS News.

The New York Observer reports that the lawyer for the plaintiff, a Mr. Schnurman, is blaming “Foreigners” for coming to hotels here and bringing bed bugs with them:

“My position is that it comes from foreigners,” Mr. Schnurman told The Observer. “Because it became so inexpensive for foreigners to travel here, I believe they brought it into our hotel system.”

I don’t think we’ve seen evidence that this is the way bed bugs got here. And there is plenty of evidence they were here before in lower numbers. Many factors are cited for their resurgence including overseas travel (which, as I am sure Mr. Schnurman has noticed, happens in both directions–and you can bet your patootie that people in other countries are claiming New Yorkers and Vancouverites and Cincinnatians are bringing bed bugs to their hotels too, as they surely are), and changes in pesticide use (including the move from monthly baseboard spraying towards targeted roach gels and treatment when needed. Pesticide resistance and chicken farms may also be relevant factors.

While there may have been some bed bugs in every country all these years (as in the US), they do seem to be spreading at a hasty pace worldwide. There isn’t some magical place where it all began, bed bug ground zero has not been identified, and appears to be a myth.

Anyway, I am not sure it’s at all relevant to the case where bed bugs came from, since the issue seems to be whether the building management and maintenance were responsible for the woman’s hardship and distress — which includes Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. (There don’t seem to be any hotel-billeted foreigners involved in this case, from what I can gather.)

Bed bugs moved with employees when their department moved to another part of the building, and the story is that Clark received bed bug bites on three separate occasions, raising the question of how many times she was actually bitten: three times, or during three periods?

I wondered also why the Observer felt it had to note that,

For the record, Ms. Clark had no history of mental illness prior to the bedbug attacks.

If she had, any distress she may have suffered could have been just as significant.

Interesting tidbit offered by the Observer: Alan Schnurman, assuming that’s the Mister in question,

. . . has handled “hundreds” of bedbug cases, most of which have been settled out of court.

You can read about some of them here.

New York vs. Bed Bugs has more links and additional prescient analysis.

• Hotel Pennsylvania Settles Bedbug Suits for Nearly $100,000 | The New York Observer
• Thai trains play the bed bug blame game: blame backpackers for bed bug infestation
• Bed bugs lurk in hotel rooms, says ABC news
• Travel reporter gets bed bugs after hundreds of hotel stays

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A bedbug epidemic in her Astoria apartment building forced Ellie Maldonado, 42, to discard her mattress last year.

Now, her brother Marcos Maldonado is spearheading an effort to raise money to replace the infected mattresses of his neighbors living in the Astoria Houses. He has named the project Sweet Dreams.

“I named it this because I want the kids to have sweet dreams as they sleep,” said Maldonado, 43, who has lived in Astoria for 16 years and is the owner of M&D Decorators on Astoria Blvd.

As I said, it’s a lovely idea, and very generous. Mr. Maldonado’s heart is in the right place, and he clearly knows firsthand how much bed bugs can mess up someone’s life and home.

However, and I hate to be a wet blanket (no pun intended), but I am concerned this program may only provide a temporary respite from bed bugs. Discarding bed bug-infested mattresses does not usually eliminate bed bugs from the home. In most cases, the room itself is also infested, along with sofas and other items.

It can give people a false sense of security. Bed bug bites may be lessened or eliminated for a while. But the bed bugs may still be present in smaller numbers, and can quickly bounce back.

What’s more, tossing out infested mattresses isn’t recommended by bed bug experts in most cases. Sealed mattress encasements tested to keep bed bugs out (or in this case, in) allow the mattress to be used and prevent a discarded mattress from going on to infest someone else’s home.

It’s essential that the apartment and the neighboring apartments are all bed bug-free, or these new mattresses will quickly become infested too.

Maldonado is donating mattresses to residents of NYCHA apartments, and the city seems pleased:

Maldonado hopes to establish a permanent, registered nonprofit organization to provide mattresses to families in the Ravenswood and Queensbridge houses next, he said.

City Housing Authority officials lauded Maldonado’s work.

“NYCHA applauds community involvement where community members want to help each other improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods,” a spokeswoman said in a written statement.

What isn’t mentioned outright in this article is the fact that it’s the NYCHA’s responsibility to eliminate bed bug infestations from NYCHA apartments.

I hope that their procedures involve inspecting all adjoining units (top, bottom, and all sides) when a complaint is made. I am concerned this is not so, since the fact sheet linked above says nothing about neighbors being inspected.

To their credit, the NYCHA does tell tenants to destroy any items which must be discarded. But my experience is most people don’t research such instructions before discarding things.

And destroying alone is not enough: mattresses should also be sealed to prevent spreading bed bugs while they await collection by the sanitation dept. or by trash-pickers.

I hope the NYCHA is also educating tenants about the signs of bed bugs, which can be quite subtle.

And I hope Mr. Maldonado will donate good mattress encasements for use with the donated mattresses.

• Tracing the path of the epidemic
• Washington Post prints correction thanks to bed bug activist
• NYC schools closer to having bed bug legislation
• Today show recommends sharing used mattresses on Craigslist, Freecycle

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The story focuses on Lisa Courtney’s bed bug battle:

Courtney tossed out her bed, mattress and linens. CityHousing, Hamilton’s social housing agency, had her Cumberland Avenue apartment treated and life returned to normal.

But now, the bedbugs are back. Courtney’s anxiety has shot up with reports of three neighbours with the same problem.

“I’m psychotic now, because people down the hall have them, too,” she said.

Landlords need to learn that you can’t simply treat the unit of the person who complains about bed bug bites. You have to have all adjacent units (above, below, and on all sides) carefully inspected and treated if necessary.

Apartment managers would be advised to read this article from Techletter.com about dealing with bed bugs in the properties under their care.

Since bed bugs can be hard to detect, especially in the early stages of infestation, landlords may also consider that treating all adjacent units where bed bugs have not been found may be a good idea. The City of Boston’s Housing Division actually requires this when the Inspectional Services Department finds bed bugs in an apartment:

Our Standard bed bug notice of violation also requires that owners inspect all units in the dwelling, and they must treat all horizontally and vertically adjacent units to the infested unit(s).

Boston landlords treat adjacent units even if they turn up no visible signs of bed bugs.

You don’t know how often Bedbuggers tell us (often in the forums) both of the following: (a) I have had 4+ bed bug treatments and the problem persists, and (b) none of my neighbors have bed bugs. When pressed, people invariably say neighbors were “asked.” Since as many as 50% of people don’t react to bites, asking doesn’t do much. Many times, inspection also turns up nothing. And then a few months later, lo and behold, bed bugs are back.

You also don’t know how often I hear (often in discreet emails) about professionals eventually discovering the badly-infested unit, with so many bed bugs they’re falling from the walls in broad daylight — invariably a bed bug infestation later discovered in a building where some other poor soul thought they were the only ones infested. Sometimes neighbors don’t know they have bed bugs because they can’t see them.

Other times bed bugs are clearly visible, but residents don’t know what they are, or fear repercussions for bringing the problem to light, or are impaired in some way such that they cannot recognize the problem or act on it, or (in rare cases) they know and just don’t care (shudder).

The good news is Hamilton is taking bed bugs seriously:

Stan Yung, a Hamilton public health manager, says the city is already intervening. It has been tracking cases since 2005 and now has a new public education campaign.

(I look forward to hearing how they are tracking infestations.)

• Bed bugs & tenant organizing: don’t take this lying down
• Boston and bed bugs: Mayor Bloomberg in NYC could learn a thing or two
• Bed bugs in North Jersey
• Bed bugs in Ventura County (Thousand Oaks, California)

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Students in a suite of Living/Learning’s B-building were displaced last week after it was discovered that one of the inhabitants had been bitten by a bed bug, UVM’s Director of Communications Enrique Corredera said.

On Thursday, April 17, it was confirmed that the bites on the leg of a female resident of one of the “German House” suites were from a bed bug, and all of the students living in the suite were moved to other housing by the next day.

The residents of L/L B-220 are permanently relocated to other areas in L/L for the rest of the semester as the suite goes through a three-week treatment process to eliminate any possibility of a bed bug infestation, Corredera said.

Evacuations must be done extremely carefully. Here, the students laundered all clothing and “bagged all belongings” (though what happens after belongings are bagged is unstated, and is of major interest, since bed bugs can apparently live for a year or even 18 months, unfed).

Evacuation of all residents and treatment of the rooms were carried out after one student received bed bug bites on her leg. It is not clear from the article whether any signs of bed bugs were found in the room (in fact, in the absence of such evidence, the student could have been bitten at a restaurant, in a library, or on a city bus).

• bedbugs at Stanford University dorms (again)
• bed bugs at University of Bridgeport
• Bed bugs at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
• 80% of Single Room Occupancy units in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside are infested with bed bugs; also Rensselaer Polytechnic’s dorms

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